When CB started, Roberts was running 96fm, Perth's first and at that stage only commercial FM station. It was four years old and the #2 station in town just behind AM station 6PM.

Two years later 96fm dominated the market like no other. They decided if you were good enough to advertise on the station. Seriously, I remember JMA had a Scarboro Toyota campaign knocked back when the material was sent. Admittedly it was pretty bad (Mike Edmonds would later write about it as his worst campaign ever) but still! And that wasn't an isolated case. Roberts had final say on all ads that went to air and the listeners always came first, which made it such an exciting station. Great music, great promotions, great concerts. And everyone had a 96fm sweatshirt.

In mid 1992 Roberts shocked the industry by moving over to
94.5FM. Within a couple of years he'd taken that station
to a dominant #1 position with a completely different approach to 96fm.

In
1994, Roberts upped the prize in the 94.5 Radio Writers Award to
$20,000. It was unbelievable - twenty grand! And here's an example of
how Roberts backed the local industry. In its first year it was open to
all comers - WA and eastern states based agencies (happily it was won by
303's Mike Edmonds). In 1995 the competition got highjacked and ended
up being subsumed into the national Golden Stylus awards. So the
following year, Roberts brought it back to WA and made it just for WA
agency writers, which it has been ever since.

He stayed with 94.5
(adding 'Mix' to the name) for ten very successful years to mid-2002, when he left to
head-up Nova 93.7, Perth's first new commercial FM station for over
twenty years.

That's three seismic shifts in Perth's radio landscape that Roberts has been behind.

Over all that time he has been a great friend and supporter of Campaign Brief.

96fm
sponsored our Creative Circle for a couple of years in the early 90s;
94.5FM was one of our very first Campaign Brief Award sponsors in 1996;
and Nova now sponsors our Supernova award, recognising the industry's
rising stars. He's always given us intelligent, though-provoking content
for our radio stories. Best of all, he's invited us to some brilliant
parties.

About Campaign Brief WA

Campaignbrief.com/wa is a blog for the advertising industry in Western Australia. Please comment freely on any topic, but comments that are seen to be more abusive than witty will not be posted. To pass on news or advertise on the blog, or to subscribe to Campaign Brief Australia/NZ or CB Asia, or The Work 09 Annual,
email martin@campaignbrief.com